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At Alchemy Accountancy, we work within a lot of creative industries - including music. From freelance musicians to bands to record labels, in today’s internet-heavy world, it’s easier than ever to start creating great music. But how exactly do you start your own record label in the UK and what are the most important things ...

Knowing how to calculate royalties on your digital music can be tricky to navigate. Here’s a step by step guide.

Clear details of the VAT rules on cross-border sales of music downloads and streaming in Europe and beyond.

Bookkeeping is far less glamorous than some of the shoots your photography business might be used to, but you need to make sure you stay on top of yours.

If you’re a photographer, you might be thinking about taking the next step and working as a photographic agent. Here’s how to get started.

Bookkeeping: not exactly flashy but absolutely necessary. What can businesses in the creative industry do to help the process? And should they hire a bookkeeper?

Working out how to get more leads needs to be as far away as guesswork as possible. Here’s how to succeed in that.

Businesses that operate on a project-by-project basis must have a robust payment plan in place to keep business running. Here are some ways to make that happen.

Starting your own creative agency is always going to feel like something of a leap of faith. From startup to exit, here's how to build an agency that thrives.

There’s an app for everything, or so they say. There are ones that complement a service, like online banking apps, while others are the foundation of a company's business. And it’s a potentially lucrative business.

As of 6 April 2021, businesses are responsible for determining workers' employment status for tax purposes. Could your contracts be affected?

Like it or not, automation already plays a big part in the creative process, and it looks like it’s here to stay. By using it in your business and linking your systems together, you can free up your time for more interesting projects.

If you run a video production company producing promotional films, commercials or digital content, keeping your tax bill down can make a big difference to your business’s viability.

A lot of people say creative work has to be messy, but I don't think that's always true. Here are five ways you can improve your systems and processes to impress current and potential clients.

The chances are that 2020 was a lot less scary for people who’d anticipated the worst-case scenario and put contingency plans in place.

With campaigns and projects, creative agencies operate differently to other types of business and could benefit from a different approach to accounting.

Even with creative agency staff working from home during 2020, campaigns got launched and websites got built. What opportunities are there in 2021?

Are your colleagues in the habit of bidding for budget they don’t need ‘to be on the safe side’? And do you hear people grumbling that they’ve been held back by the lack of available budget? As 2021 budgets firm up in many creative businesses, here’s advice on how to make the process work.

One of the biggest challenges of growth is that the bigger your creative business gets, the more people you need to keep happy. Stakeholders need to feel you’re on top of things and reassured that the numbers stack up. Good leaders don’t react to queries – they present reports that answer questions before they’re asked.

If you can make subscription services part of your firm’s offer you can build additional value into your agency or practice, making it irresistible to potential investors and buyers.

As creative businesses begin putting together their plans for 2021, we look at how those in leadership positions can balance financial realities with establishing an inspiring vision and goals.

From pricing strategies to KPIs, applying systems and processes to creative work will make your agency more scalable, profitable and efficient.

You owe it to yourself and to your creative agency to stay on top of costs – but how do you square that with finding and keeping the best people?

People often come to me and ask what their business would be worth if they sold it. The truth is, particularly when we’re in the middle of a pandemic-fuelled recession, there is no simple answer to this. Accountancy textbooks teach you (well, taught me) that the value of a business is usually anything between your ...